Live chat
Last updated · A-Widget
| Decision | Tidio | LiveChat | tawk.to | Crisp | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A small business that needs human chat and a defined path into bots | A team comparing human support with included AI scope | A business that can staff chat and wants to avoid a base software subscription | A team comparing website chat with a broader message workflow | A business already managing contacts and follow-up in HubSpot |
| Documented scope | Live chat and help desk; Lyro AI and Flows have distinct usage units; Published free tier has finite allowances | New trials use Text plans with chat, inbox and AI Agent; Essential and Growth charge per user with AI limits; Existing LiveChat plans remain on legacy pricing | Published free live chat service; Optional paid services are separate; Free software still needs staffing | Shared customer inbox; Website chat and plan-based automation; Seats and automation vary by package | Website live chat and CRM route; Chatflows and account-based management; Advanced capabilities depend on entitlement |
| Trade-off | Human chats, Lyro and Flows use different limits | Check Text allowances against the existing LiveChat plan | Optional services and branding choices are separate | Seats and automation differ across packages | Advanced actions can depend on paid product entitlements |
| Next step | Read Tidio analysis | Read LiveChat analysis | Read tawk.to analysis | Read Crisp analysis | Read HubSpot analysis |
These are research-based choices from listed plans and help pages. We have not tested their paid accounts or timed replies. A live chat widget gives users a way to ask; it does not supply the staff, answers or service rules behind the reply.
Tidio
Our verdict:
Chat plus automation
Best for A small business that needs human chat and a defined path into bots
Keep in mind: Human chats, Lyro and Flows use different limits
Tidio is a useful first choice to inspect if you want chat, a help desk and automation in one product family. Its current plan page separates human-handled conversations, Lyro AI conversations and users reached by Flows. That split is central to a fair cost check.
Do not add all your website visits to a chat allowance. A visit and a human-handled conversation are distinct units. Likewise, access to a trial of Lyro does not prove a fresh AI allowance will arrive each month.
A small store may need a person to answer delivery questions, a fixed flow to collect a request and an AI route for approved help content. Tidio is a candidate for that mix. Decide which of those tasks you actually need before choosing a package.
The human part needs working hours and a named owner inside your business. The flow needs a clear end state. The AI part needs a source that is accurate enough to use. Putting them behind one launcher does not make those three jobs the same.
For a fictional shop, a safe first use could be a human queue with a short offline message. Once that works, the owner could assess a narrow FAQ route. This is a planning example, not a claim that automation increased the shop's sales.
The official Tidio pricing page lists Free, Starter, Growth, Plus and Premium. It also shows separate automation products and usage choices. Use our Tidio pricing guide to keep those units apart.
An annual monthly equivalent is not a month-to-month charge. Record the billing period as well as the displayed amount. If the account needs a custom usage quote, leave that total unknown until you have a current offer for the right scope.
The main drawback is that a simple product name can hide several quota decisions. A team with a few staff may still need more conversations. A team with many staff may not need AI at all. Count the work rather than assuming seats set the whole bill.
Read the current installation guide for your platform. Check the data used by chat and any connected source. Define what happens when the bot cannot answer or no human is available. A polite fallback should be part of the plan, not a later repair.
See the chatbot versus live chat comparison if you are still choosing between automation and a human queue. Choosing the right channel first can make the product decision much smaller.
LiveChat
Our verdict:
Staffed conversations and AI
Best for A team comparing human support with included AI scope
Keep in mind: Check Text allowances against the existing LiveChat plan
LiveChat is a candidate for a staffed queue, but new trials now use Text. The current pricing page lists Essential, Growth and Enterprise. Text combines live chat, an inbox, tickets and an AI Agent. Check both seats and AI use.
Count the people who need access under the current plan rules. Then check what each role can do. A shared login can make ownership unclear and may conflict with the service's account terms. Use supported roles for the real team.
Set the opening hours the team can meet. Decide who takes the first reply and who owns a chat that needs more work. A queue with several available people still needs a rule for who acts next.
A fictional service company might staff chat during office hours and use a message route later. That is a clearer promise than implying someone is always present. The page should distinguish an instant conversation from a request awaiting a later reply.
Use the LiveChat help centre to inspect installation, routing and the current plan scope. A named feature on a plan table needs the matching setup, access and staffing to work in practice.
Text Essential includes one AI Agent and 10 AI resolutions per month. Growth includes 10 agents and 200 resolutions per month. Enterprise has custom scope. A resolution is the vendor's unit for an AI-solved question; it is not a staff seat.
Existing customers keep their LiveChat account, plan and price under the legacy pricing page. ChatBot remains a distinct product. Do not mistake that legacy product split for a claim that Text has no included AI. Compare the actual plan before moving.
Choose this route when human support is the main task and the documented plan supports your team's workflow. Consider another route if you mainly need an occasional contact message and have no staff to hold a live conversation.
The trade-off is the cost and management of human access. More software does not create more working hours. If the queue regularly remains unanswered, fix coverage or change the page's promise before adding more bot greetings.
tawk.to
Our verdict:
Free base chat
Best for A business that can staff chat and wants to avoid a base software subscription
Keep in mind: Optional services and branding choices are separate
tawk.to publicly offers free live chat software. That makes it a useful choice for a team starting with a human queue. Its optional paid services are a distinct decision from the base chat offer.
Free software does not make the support work free. Someone must read, answer and follow up. Compare the service process and privacy needs as carefully as you would for a paid product.
Read tawk.to's official site and current help for the exact platform route. Confirm the account, widget placement and team setup. Check which optional services you are considering instead of assuming every feature mentioned by the company belongs to free chat.
For a fictional local business, the first useful rule may simply be which staff member checks the queue. The next is what the user sees when that person is away. A clear offline path is more useful than an empty chat panel.
Review branding and any paid removal option on the current offer. A visible vendor mark may be acceptable for your site. If removing it matters, treat that as a real need and verify the cost rather than calling the whole setup free.
Chat content is details sent to a vendor. Set a rule against sharing payment card details or account secrets in the conversation. Staff should move sensitive tasks to the business's supported secure process.
Check who can access the conversation history and how you can remove access later. A small team can still need clear roles. A free base plan is not a substitute for knowing where messages live and who can read them.
If you need a CRM-led process or an exact automation feature, compare the documented alternative rather than forcing a free chat service into that job. The right free option is the one that meets the task without hidden manual work you cannot sustain.
See the free live chat comparison for the difference between ongoing free plans and temporary trials. Those are separate promises even when both start without payment.
Crisp
Our verdict:
Shared inbox
Best for A team comparing website chat with a broader message workflow
Keep in mind: Seats and automation differ across packages
Crisp is a candidate when the shared inbox matters as much as the widget. Its current offer separates packages with distinct seat and automation scope. Compare the account your staff will use, not just the opening bubble on the page.
An inbox can be useful when a conversation continues beyond the first website visit. Decide how your team marks ownership and completion. A message that remains visible but has no owner can still be lost in practice.
Use Crisp's listed pricing and help pages to check the package you need. Do not copy an old free-seat limit from another review. Confirm the current plan for any bot, AI, knowledge or team feature you intend to rely on.
For a fictional small team, one person may handle the first question and another may resolve a technical issue. The useful decision is how that transfer appears to both people. A feature list without an ownership process does not prove a reliable handoff.
Keep the source of user details clear. If you connect another service, check which fields travel and why. A broader inbox can bring more useful context, but it can also expose data to more people or create another place to maintain it.
Consider Crisp when the documented shared workflow fits the way your team responds. Pass when the required package adds complexity without fixing a real task. A single occasional inquiry may be better served by a clear form and a reliable reply process.
The key drawback is package fit. Do not assume that a low entry price includes every communication and automation feature. Keep the required seat count and exact workflow beside the plan you are checking.
HubSpot
Our verdict:
CRM workflow
Best for A business already managing contacts and follow-up in HubSpot
Keep in mind: Advanced actions can depend on paid product entitlements
HubSpot's live chat route is useful when the conversation should connect to a CRM process. Its official product page offers website chat and describes the connection with user records. That can be useful if the business already works in that environment.
The decision is not just whether a chat widget can load. Decide what record the chat should create or update, who follows up and what information is needed. A user asking a question should not be forced through an unrelated sales form.
Read HubSpot's live chat overview and knowledge base for current chatflow setup. Keep basic chat separate from advanced automation or paid product features. The same account may expose several products with distinct terms.
For a fictional agency, a chat about a service might be assigned to a person who already manages that contact. That is a possible workflow to assess. It is not proof that the software will find every user or create a qualified lead by itself.
Inspect what tracking or contact data the chosen setup uses. Configure the site policy and consent behavior to match the real installation. A product's privacy settings do not write your website's explanation for you.
Choose this route when chat supports an existing CRM process and the current account includes the needed features. Look elsewhere when adopting a full CRM would create a larger job than the conversation itself needs.
The trade-off is the wider system dependency. Your staff need a clear place to work, suitable access and a way to handle changes in product plan scope. A CRM connection is valuable only when the business uses the resulting record.
Write the hours you can cover. Include breaks, leave and busy periods. Choose an honest offline message for times when a person cannot reply. Do not promise continuous service because a launcher remains visible overnight.
Decide how a chat becomes someone else's task. A refund question may need an order specialist. A technical issue may need a longer investigation. The user should know whether the chat continues live or becomes a follow-up message.
Use clear response wording rather than an unsupported countdown. If you cannot support an exact reply time, say when the team is available and provide another route. A missed promise can be worse than a modest but accurate one.
Seats count people under the vendor's rules. Conversations count exchanges under a separate definition. AI allowances may use another unit again. A user reached by a flow is not necessarily a human conversation or a successful resolution.
Write your expected tasks next to those units. Use fictional volumes only as planning assumptions, clearly labelled. Do not turn them into claims about your future traffic, sales or support savings.
When two vendors use distinct units, compare a defined scenario rather than dividing headline prices. Keep unknown usage charges unknown. Review the renewal period and any separate product required for the workflow.
An official plugin or app can simplify placement, but it still connects to a service with its own account. A pasted script may work where a platform permits it. Neither route overrides the platform's plan and code restrictions.
Use the platform-specific guides for WordPress, Shopify and Squarespace. Each starts from the supported installation path, rather than assuming all sites accept the same code.
Keep one source of installation. A plugin and a hand-pasted snippet can load the same widget twice. Record where the code lives so a theme change or app removal does not leave an unexplained launcher behind.
Check whether the chat button covers a purchase control, accessibility control or consent choice on a phone. A user should be able to close the panel and return to the page. The feature should support the page rather than compete with every other action.
Keep key help available as normal text or a link. A user may block the widget, decline optional tracking or use a browser where the external script fails. Delivery details should not disappear merely because a chat vendor is unavailable.
Tell users not to share passwords or payment card details. Use the business's secure account or payment process for those tasks. Staff need the same rule so they do not ask for sensitive details as a shortcut.
Inspect the current vendor terms, access roles and retention controls. Decide who can read history and who can export it. Do not claim that installing a widget makes the whole website compliant with a law or industry rule.
Check a live page while signed out. Send a fictional test question using the vendor's supported process. Confirm the staff sees it in the right queue and that the user can read the reply.
Then check the offline state and a transfer. If automation is enabled, ask a question outside its approved knowledge. The safe result may be an admission that it cannot answer, followed by a clear human or contact route.
Finally, record how to disable the connection. Removing an app may leave manually added code. Removing a theme snippet may leave a separate app embed. Inspect the public page after removal to confirm the real result.
In a fictional two-person shop, the morning agent leaves while a product question is still open. The next person needs the question, the answer already given and the next promised action. They do not need to guess from a panel marked online.
Use that case when comparing queue controls and history access. Check whether the planned staff role can find the open work. Then decide how the team will mark it complete. Software can carry a record, but the team must agree on what its state means.
Choose an installation task: add chat to a website or add chat to Shopify. For a narrower choice, compare ecommerce chat and lead inquiry workflows.
If Tidio's limits do not fit, use the Tidio alternatives guide. For a phone-message entrance, see the WhatsApp widget guide, which keeps a click-to-chat link separate from staffed web support.
A short greeting can make the support route clearer. Name the kind of help the team can give and avoid a broad promise to solve everything. A user asking about delivery should know whether they will reach a person or a later-message path.
Keep the public help page linked nearby. Some users only need that fact and do not want to start a conversation. Chat should make the page more useful without forcing every question into the queue.
Read the greeting again when staff hours or products change. The script can keep loading while the promise becomes wrong. Treat the words as part of the service setup.
The user may only need a link, not a conversation. Make it easy to close chat and return to the page. Do not make a message or contact detail a required step to read a public service fact.
If two staff members share a shift, establish whether both need paid access, whether a supervisor also occupies a seat and who can take over an unresolved chat. Compare that staffing arrangement with each vendor’s seat rules before choosing a plan.
4 picks
Compare Shopify Inbox, Tidio, LiveChat and Gorgias by store workflow. Check plan units, account access, staff coverage and order-data boundaries.
4 picks
Compare four free live chat candidates. Separate ongoing plans from trials and check staff access, usage limits, branding and offline replies.
4 picks
Compare four ecommerce chat routes for product questions, order support and returns. Check store access, staff coverage and secure handoff.
3 picks
Compare Tidio, LiveChat and HubSpot for lead inquiries. Define useful questions, honest offline messages and a follow-up process staff can own.
4 picks
Compare four Tidio alternatives by human support, shared inbox and CRM needs. Check plan units and migration tasks without assuming equal costs.
4 picks
Compare four WordPress live chat routes. Check plugin publishers, hosted plan limits, staff access, duplicate scripts and the public-page result.
No. A live chat route connects a user with a person when one is available. A bot responds through rules or an AI system. Some products combine both, but the knowledge, usage limits and human handoff still need their own setup and checks.
Start with the hours and task you can support. An ongoing free chat plan can fit a modest human queue. A CRM-linked route may fit an existing contact process. A form can be clearer when nobody can answer live. There is no universal choice based only on staff count.
This guide makes no such promise. A chat feature can give users a route to ask questions, but results depend on demand, staff, answers and the surrounding site. An outbound click, a new conversation and a purchase are separate events and should not be treated as the same result.
Only if the knowledge source, limits and fallback are ready for the task. A human-only launch can be useful while you learn what questions arrive. Add automation for a defined need rather than enabling every feature just because the plan makes a trial available.
